New York Secures $8 Million VGW Payout For Illegal Online Sweepstakes Casinos

• New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the state has secured $8 million from VGW Holdings
• An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General determined VGW operated illegal online sweepstakes casinos in the state
• VGW halted its New York sweepstakes offerings in June 2025

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced the state secured $8 million from VGW Holdings and its affiliates for unlawfully running online gambling platforms in the Empire State.

An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General concluded VGW’s online casinos – Chumba Casino, Global Poker, and Luckyland Slots – allowed New York customers to engage in illegal and unlicensed online gaming in the state. New York law prohibits online platforms from offering gambling that involves risking something of value, such as redeemable “sweepstakes coins,” without a license.

“Our state’s gambling laws are designed to protect New Yorkers,” Attorney General James said in a release. “Online sweepstakes casinos like Chumba Casino, Global Poker, and Luckyland Slots posed a dangerous threat to New Yorkers and their financial and mental health. My office took action to stop these illegal platforms last year, and now we are holding VGW accountable for the damage done.”

VGW Halted New York Offerings in 2025

New York issued an initial letter to VGW on April 25, 2025, warning the company that most “sweepstakes” casino are illegal in New York, demanding a cease-and-desist from its illegal gaming conduct. VGW agreed to the cease-and-desist notice and halted its sweepstakes gaming services in the state on June 2, 2025.

Under the settlement, VGW will pay New York $8 million in disgorgement, restitution, penalties, and costs. Payment will be made within two weeks of the settlement, which is dated Aug. 31, 2026. Consumers who did not previously receive a notification from VGW will be allowed to submit a request to redeem sweepstakes coins that were still in their account when the platform ceased operations in New York. VGW will be responsible for redeeming the coins at the rate of exchange in the then-applicable version of the platform’s sweepstakes rules.

The New York Attorney General found that VGW’s conduct violated New York penal law 225.10 and 225.20, which prohibits the promotion of gambling and possession of gambling records. The conduct also violated executive law 63(12), which prohibits repeated fraudulent or illegal acts.

VGW New York Operations

According to the Office of the Attorney General, VGW began offering online gambling to New Yorkers in 2012 through Chumba Casino and expanded its online offering to poker with Global Poker in 2016. It continued and began offering slots with its Luckyland Slot games in 2018.

VGW attempted to evade New York’s ban on sweepstakes casinos by offering a type of virtual coin called “sweeps coins,” which VGW claimed it provided for free and therefore did not constitute gambling.

The investigation found players could obtain “sweeps coins” the same way one might purchase chips at a casino, receiving one coin for one dollar spent on the platform.

“Respondents offered users gold coins and sweeps coins together in certain specially marked packages. In most of those packages, the number of sweeps coins the user received would be roughly equivalent to the dollar amount of the purchase price. For example, a user that paid $5 would receive 5.05 sweeps coins and 1,000,000 gold coins; a user that paid $50 would receive 51.50 sweeps coins and 15,000,000 gold coins. Respondents characterized these transactions as sales of gold coins, with sweeps coins included for ‘free’,” the Office of the Attorney General wrote in its investigation.

In December, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a bill into law to formally ban sweepstakes casinos.